LAS Teaching Academy: Working With TA's and RA's

Notes on Best Practices for Working With Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants

LASTA workshop, 1.26.10

Faculty Presenters:

Alex Scheeline, Dept. of Chemistry

Andrea Golato, Graduate College and Dept. of German Languages and Literatures

Leanne Knobloch, Dept. of Communication

Sarah Grison, Dept. of Psychology

Moderator: Cara Finnegan, Dept. of Communication (author of this synthesis of the discussion)

Best Practices for Working With TAs

Intellectual/Relational Considerations

Make sure you value TAs as intellectual resources for the course, and let them know that. Give them opportunities to contribute to intellectual development of course. Involve TAs in curricular change, encourage their ownership of the course.

TAs are often eyes/ears in course overall; they can help you figure out potential problems in course and troubleshoot.

Empower TAs to problem-solve themselves; they don’t always have to come to you.

Work consciously to help TAs see how they fit into overall course goals/objectives.

Be aware of your own power!

Treat TAs as colleagues.

Foster community spirit among TAs: dinner/pizza/socializing all help everyone think of themselves as a team.

Temper criticism with praise.

Model good teaching practice yourself!

Promote competence by communicating best practices of pedagogy as well as course content.

Promote autonomy (not the same as independence) by encouraging TAs to develop their own versions of course materials, revising current ones.

Invite feedback on your own supervision practices.

Practical Considerations

Keep notes from year to year so that you don’t lose institutional knowledge when TAs change over time.